Casino Point Reduced in Size

[drbill]

Looks like those weekend warrior yachters finally succeeded in lobbying the harbor master to get the Casino Dive Park on Catalina decreased in size.

Just kidding, but on a serious note three of the four major buoys that keep the Dive Park boundary in place are now broken due to yesterday's storm. One chain had been broken for several weeks.

The result is that the Dive Park is now 1/3rd to 1/2 its size before yesterday. The only buoy still anchored is the one furthest north (near the swim platform and towards the Valiant). This means that most of the area used for instruction is still relatively intact. However, everything from the Pisces and other wrecks to the Sujac is now essentially "out" of the park.

Despite this, conditions in the Park today were quite nice. A bit of a current, but nothing troublesome. Good vis and not much surge and things were pretty quiet after the winds died down.

Hopefully this will all be repaired before Thanksgiving weekend. Bruce, the diver on the mooring service boat, observed the damage today.

Dr. Bill

 

[FengShui]

Is Thanksgiving weekend usually a busy time for the dive park? My wife and I were thinking of going out there on Saturday.

 

[drbill]

It can be "busy" (for a winter weekend) if the weather is good, but rarely is it like a summer weekend.

Dr. Bill

 

[Robert Phillips]

I was on the Island with the Wife for our anniversary yesterday, and we took a walk to see the park from the surface. I mentioned to her that it was a lot smaller than I thought it was!
Thanks for the info Dr. Bill. I was ready to be dissapointed with the limited area of the park. Next time I'm on the Island I'll be in the water instead of spending the whole time on land.
By the way, Dr. Bill, I saw you today as we were leaving. I was going to stop and introduce myself, but you were busy in a conversation with some ppeople and I didnt want to interupt any more than I did when I said, "Hey, It's Dr. Bill!" Maybe next time!

 

[drbill]

robertphillips5 - Thanks for solving that problem. I wondered who said hello. I was talking to one of my former high school students from 25 years ago. She had brought her daughter out to see the island and her ikd high school.

Hopefully the Dive Park will return to its normal size soon. I don't like violating the limits just to get to some of my shallow water sites!

Dr. Bill

 

[drbill]

GREAT NEWS... I walked down to the Dive Park this afternoon without wetsuit or tank (sniff, have to "work" sometime). The harbor department had the mooring service boat out there reattaching the chains to the buoys and we should now have our entire Park back today.

MORE GOOD NEWS- A few dive instructors I know said visibility was in excess of 100 FEET. Time to dive tomorrow.

Dr. Bill

 

[Mo2vation]

That is great news. I'll probably be out there on the 6th...

Thanks. Its great to have a roving reporter on the island.

K


PS: who won the game on Sat?

 

[drbill]

Ken- Shoot... I'll be flying down to La Paz that day.

Who won the game Sat? You must mean the CIF playoff game. "We" trounced them (well, not me since I was deep underwater that day).

Dr. Bill

 

[Mo2vation]

the HARVARD game, silly.

K

 

[drbill]

Ah, Ken, you must capitalize The Game in that case!

Do you think Harvard would let a bunch of blue-blood wussies from Jail (er, Yale) beat us? I think it was 37-19 Harvard or something close to that.

Not as exciting as the 29-29 win that Harvard eeked out my senior year, scoring 16 points in the final 43 seconds! Awesome.

Dr. Bill